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From NBC News: Sarah Wynn-Williams, a former Facebook employee who alleged misconduct and sexual harassment at the company in a memoir published last month, will testify before Congress on Wednesday that Meta executives undermined U.S. national security and briefed Chinese officials on emerging technologies like artificial intelligence.
In her introductory statement, obtained by NBC News, Wynn-Williams will tell the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism that Meta executives “lied about what they were doing with the Chinese Communist Party to employees, shareholders, Congress, and the American public.”
“I saw Meta executives repeatedly undermine US national security and betray American values,” she will say, according to the prepared remarks. “They did these things in secret to win favor with Beijing and build an $18 billion dollar business in China,” her statement says, referring to China-based advertisers.
Wynn-Williams, a former New Zealand diplomat, worked at Facebook from 2011 to 2017. She believes she was fired in 2017 as retaliation for accusing her boss, Joel Kaplan, who at the time was a vice president for global public policy, of sexual harassment. Meta, which owns Facebook, said that an investigation cleared Kaplan in 2017 and that Wynn-Williams’ book, “Careless People,” included “false accusations about our executives.” Meta also said other claims in the book were “out-of-date and previously reported,” and a former supervisor said she was fired for performance reasons.
The hearing is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. ET Wednesday.
Starting off the hearing, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said, “This is a hearing that Facebook has desperately tried to prevent.”
Hawley said Zuckerberg worked hand in hand with the Chinese communist party for years.
Read the ex-Meta executive’s draft opening statement to Congress accusing the company of aiding China’s AI advancements https://t.co/x11E7kOVLY
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) April 9, 2025
WATCH LIVE COVERAGE of the hearing in the video below:
That slide is from their own internal audit. The one they promised the public and Congress in testimony then buried it including fighting to keep the forensic clean up artists aka auditors under seal, too, until an attorney said it in open courtroom. https://t.co/DfkjoQCjKX
— Jason Kint (@jason_kint) April 9, 2025
And yes that audit would suggest Meta traded out personal user data through APIs to Chinese developers by the tens of thousands to accelerate its growth. Andreessen, Thiel, Zuckerberg, Sandberg all deposed in recent months related to this scandal and the $5B settlement.
— Jason Kint (@jason_kint) April 9, 2025
Here is a link to today’s Senate Judiciary 2:30pm hearing. It’s worth noting the FTC v Meta antitrust has a pretrial hearing today at 2pm ahead of Monday’s trial which last week I testified was critical important to the same Senate Judiciary committee. https://t.co/guvoHN35lr
— Jason Kint (@jason_kint) April 9, 2025
Wynn-Williams was interviewed on 60 Minutes last week:
Sarah Wynn-Williams, a former Facebook employee who alleged misconduct and sexual harassment at the company in a memoir, will testify before Congress that Meta executives undermined national security and briefed Chinese officials on emerging technologies. https://t.co/8touLAtuWT
— NBC News (@NBCNews) April 9, 2025
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